In general, dye images obtained by processing silver halide color photographic materials are composed of azomethine dyes or indoaniline dyes formed by the reaction of couplers and the oxidation product of an aromatic primary amine developing agent. The dye images formed by such a mechanism are not always stable to light and heat to usually reduce the image quality by causing fading or discoloration of imaged portions or increasing of stain. In particular, in the case of color photographic papers, color prints are frequently stored in album, etc., or exhibited in general home and in this case the reduction in density of imaged portions and the increase of yellow stain give large problems.
For solving the above-described problems, various improvements have been proposed.
For example, there are proposed a technique of covering a dye image with an oxygen-intercepting layer composed of a material having a low oxygen permeability as described in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 11330/74 and 57223/75 (the term "OPI" as used herein refers to a "published unexamined Japanese patent application") and also a technique of forming a layer having an oxygen permeability of less than 20 ml/m.sup.2.multidot. hr.multidot.atm at the support side of dye image-forming layers of a color photographic material as described in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 85747/81.
These techniques may have an effect to some extent for the prevention of the occurrence of yellow stain but they not only have no effect for cyan dye images but also accelerate the deterioration of cyan dye images as the case may be.
Also, a technique of employing a multilayer structure for surface protective layer is proposed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 8346/81 but a sufficient effect is not obtained by such a technique.
Also, various kinds of fading preventing agents have been developed. For example, there are the hydroquinone derivatives described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,360,290, 2,418,613, 2,675,314, 2,701,197, 2,704,713, 2,728,659, 2,732,300, 2,735,765, 2,710,801 and 2,816,028, British Patent No. 1,363,921, Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No 24141/83; the gallic acid derivatives described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,457,079, 3,069,262, etc.; the p-alkoxyphenols described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,735,765, 3,698,909, Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 20977/74, 6623/77, etc.; the p-oxyphenol derivatives described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,432,300, 3,573,050, 3,574,627, 3,764,337, Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 35633/77, 147434/77, 152225/77, etc.; the bisphenols described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,700,455, etc. However, the effect by these fading preventing agents is still insufficient.
On the other hand, some attempts have been applied for various processing steps for obtaining color images having excellent fastness. For example, as well known, a stabilization bath is employed as the final bath. The stabilization bath generally contains a pH adjusting agent, a surface active agent, an image stabilizer such as formalin, etc., a brightening agent, etc. However, such a stabilization bath does not have an effect for preventing fading of magenta images and also is frequently powerless for preventing the formation of yellow stain.
Also, a multistage countercurrent non-wash treatment is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 8543/82 and further as the technique for preventing the formation of yellow stain in the above treatment, the use of a chelating agent (e.g., Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 58143/82) and the addition of a water-soluble bismuth compound (e.g., Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 134636/83) have been proposed but the effect is insufficient.
Moreover, it is known to prevent fading of images by processing color photographic materials with a stabilization bath having a high concentration of iron salt as described in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 14834/83. However, in this case, the prevention of the occurrence of yellow stain is insufficient and it is fastness are obtained.
As described above, it is very difficult to simultaneously attain the stability of color images, in particular, the light fastness of magenta dye images and the prevention of yellow stain in conventional techniques.